Rebuilding from Scratch

johnelle · 01-15-2018, 11:47 AM

So I thought my library DB was being backed up but of course now that the disk crashed, its missing from the backup. The books are all on the NAS and I shared the DB file amongst 3 computers.

While I am doing the recovery I was going do the rebuild of the DB on one of the other computers that has Calibre. When I start up it asks me for a directory to put a new db. I gave it an empty directory but it just shuts down. Tried this twice. Can't get it to start up.

I am guessing there is some settings file I need to edit somewhere?

johnelle · 01-16-2018, 06:53 AM

Just to be clear I am not rebuilding to the original location because that is on a share and the machine is broken. I am trying to rebuild on a computer that has a working version of Calibre and its currently pointing at the (offline) share db.

I want to rebuild the db on that machine not in its original location. The book/library directory structure is on a NAS. Only the db was stored on a local machine for performance.

So how can I tell Calibre to not use the db it knows about but build a new one locally?

kovidgoyal · 01-16-2018, 07:01 AM

I dont really understand what your issue is, since the number of things you could have done to arrive in this state is nearly infinite, but, here's how to reset everything.

1) Remove any calibre environment variables

2) Remove the calibre configuration directory. Reboot your computer.

3) Copy your old library folder off the NAS and on to a local hard disk

4) Delete the metadata.db file from that folder, if it exists

5) Start calibre from the command prompt as

calibre.exe --with-library "C:/path/to/your/library folder/from/step/3"

6) You will get am empty library

7) Right click the calibre logo icon on the claibre toolbar and choose library maintenance->Rebuild database

theducks · 01-16-2018, 11:55 AM

Shares HAVE NEVER been supported (or recommended) for a calibre library.
Copy the library to a Local drive (Typ C: )

01-15-2018, 11:47 AM	#1
johnelle Zealot Posts: 103 Karma: 2137668 Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Groton, MA Device: Kindle app on Samsung Tab	Rebuilding from Scratch So I thought my library DB was being backed up but of course now that the disk crashed, its missing from the backup. The books are all on the NAS and I shared the DB file amongst 3 computers. While I am doing the recovery I was going do the rebuild of the DB on one of the other computers that has Calibre. When I start up it asks me for a directory to put a new db. I gave it an empty directory but it just shuts down. Tried this twice. Can't get it to start up. I am guessing there is some settings file I need to edit somewhere?

01-16-2018, 06:53 AM	#2
johnelle Zealot Posts: 103 Karma: 2137668 Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Groton, MA Device: Kindle app on Samsung Tab	Was hoping for a little help Just to be clear I am not rebuilding to the original location because that is on a share and the machine is broken. I am trying to rebuild on a computer that has a working version of Calibre and its currently pointing at the (offline) share db. I want to rebuild the db on that machine not in its original location. The book/library directory structure is on a NAS. Only the db was stored on a local machine for performance. So how can I tell Calibre to not use the db it knows about but build a new one locally?

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01-16-2018, 07:01 AM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I dont really understand what your issue is, since the number of things you could have done to arrive in this state is nearly infinite, but, here's how to reset everything. 1) Remove any calibre environment variables 2) Remove the calibre configuration directory. Reboot your computer. 3) Copy your old library folder off the NAS and on to a local hard disk 4) Delete the metadata.db file from that folder, if it exists 5) Start calibre from the command prompt as calibre.exe --with-library "C:/path/to/your/library folder/from/step/3" 6) You will get am empty library 7) Right click the calibre logo icon on the claibre toolbar and choose library maintenance->Rebuild database

01-16-2018, 11:55 AM	#4
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,800 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Shares HAVE NEVER been supported (or recommended) for a calibre library. Copy the library to a Local drive (Typ C: )

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